DavesGaming

I’ll spoil the gag here right away, this team is aliens because they’re not from the Forgotten Realms. They are characters from my own game setting, something I first dreamed up some 45 years ago when I was still in high school.  It’s a post-apocalyptic setting, first inspired by the old Gamma World game, something more like Wasteland or Fallout.  But I always used the mechanics of AD&D. That is a much more sophisticated system than what Gamma World was with more involved combat, a meaningful class system and gaining levels meant something.  Then I set it much further into the future, 500+ years past the cataclysm.  With a tagline of “the World of science and technology had failed, time for a return of gods and magic.”  It allowed for everything from high tech, to superheroes, aliens, constructs, mutants, mythology, magic and fairy tales…   basically whatever I wanted to do. If I were doing it now I’d tighten things down more.  But it served me well enough to use for 30 or more years. Now, many years later, I have files full of old characters of every bizarre description and sort.  Some characters I have no idea how to present in a more traditional AD&D sort of computer game.  But a few I have ideas for, even some of the more “out there” concepts. A couple were adapted for my previous “Wendelin and the Illegals” run, one of those will be slightly re-imagined again here. 
Another obvious change, I always ran a Greek pantheon. We’ll switch that up here and assume its always been the same pantheon as the Realms.

This time, I’m creating a whole crew from that setting to plop right into the Realms.  Some of these characters knew each other, some did not. This setting ran for a long time with completely different groups of friends, and these characters were not all chosen from the same group. The goal was to find characters I could make work in IWD, and still give me a balanced party.  Of course this will be told from their perspective. So the Realms will be the alien world.  Also, the set-up will be from a time slightly after anything I ever ran, a time of War I was building towards in the latter years of the game but never quite made it to.

*****

Aias had been born to wealth and served the Queen all his life, and had risen to a position of prestige and power.  He had his own Barony by the time he was 30.  A few years later he met Ila. She was training at the Temple of Tyr he himself had sponsored. She had no idea who he was when they first literally ran into each other.  They got to talking and quickly became very fond of each other. After getting close for a few weeks she grew hesitant, suddenly concerned they were breaking church rules by her, a mere acolyte, getting involved with someone in leadership.  Aias had no choice but to explain, he wasn’t actually a part of the clerical hierarchy. He just owned the land and built the temple.  That became the sort of story they could retell for years…

They were married a short time later.  Ila was maybe half way through her paladin training when she became the Baroness. And she was with child almost right away.  Aias remained highly valued in the Queen’s service and was often called away to deal with trouble.  So the couple decided Ila would withdraw from her training to run the Barony and raise their children. They had three more in the next decade.  Six months ago, Aias was working with friends, a group he knew well, when he found himself cut-off. Deep underground. Surrounded by vampires. It was a terrible fight. His friends got back to him when he was almost at his end. They prevailed.  But Aias was not the hero he had been. The vampires had stolen so much life from him, he simply couldn’t fight or call down power from Tyr as he had. [note – in PnP level drains are a far bigger deal than in the IE games. Restoration cost a caster years off their life. Most people level drained will have to simply carry on from their current state. That is the case here, Aias lost over ten levels from each of his classes. I will assume their homeworld follows PnP rules on this]
He was given time to recuperate, really as much time as he wanted.  Ila was suddenly motivated to return to her paladin training as an Undead Hunter. 

Then the War came. The Queen and The Empire had shared an increasingly contentious border for years.  Aias’ old crew were all capable of much greater challenges than he was currently up to. So Aias was given a new team, a dozen kids fresh out of training to raid an Imperial estate just on the border. It was being used for gladiator slave training, and Aias was tasked with shutting it down and freeing the slaves. They might even gain some skilled warriors in the process.  This raid was a big success. Just one minor problem that would maybe become a bigger problem. In the course of bringing 50 freed slaves to freedom Aias equipped and deployed them all, to evaluate so those who were willing could be quickly put in jobs they were suited for. One of the freed slaves, a young woman named Jill, was determined to fight with the Queen’s forces against the Imperial slavers. But Aias was quite certain she was a poor candidate as a warrior. Almost certainly she was being trained purely to die a showy, bloody death. She was determined however. He thought Jill was eager, but foolish, weak and frail. She was maybe agile, but her training was entirely in swords. He recommended she be trained in bow and posted to a garrison.
A month later Aias was given a new mission and new team. Ila was now done with training and she’d be coming along.  He was assigned two other young women who’d been with him on the previous mission; Jinella was a capable warrior, a big hearty woman who could dual wield long swords. And Charity was a mage, a Reiman, which was a race that often favored magic use.  A new team member was a young Samblon, Pikwell, a scout and cleric of Tymora. Aias had not seen many Samblon in the military, but Pikwell seemed ready and happy to help.  And there was Jill. Somehow she’d convinced people she had to fight with the heroes who’d saved her. At least she was now trained as an archer.
The mission involved recon of an Imperial observation post.  High up a mountain on the border. Some opportune foul weather had moved in, and a couple of the Queen’s mages could ensure it would stay that way for several days. Aias and his team could approach while the outpost was blind. Their first mission was to see what they were up to, and what they could see. Second mission, if feasible, was to destroy the outpost.  It was conceded Aias had a small and inexperienced team, bringing them all home alive was a higher priority than destroying anything.

Before setting out, Aias pulled his wife aside. “Ila I have a concern. I think Jill is eager but foolish. I’m going to ask you to be my Sergeant on the grounds I want a woman directly responsible for these young women. But truly, I’ve worked with Jinella and Charity and trust them to know their jobs. But I need you to look out for Jill. Keep her in support, doing overwatch. She should avoid melee, I think that will get her killed.”

Equipment would be light since most of the mission involved climbing a mountain. Apart from vile weather, things were going well. As they approached their target Pikwell announced a problem, he’d found a trip wire type trap between two rocks and he couldn’t find what it was tied to. Charity thought it looked magical and they were discussing what to do…   FLASH!  Everyone fell to the rocky hillside, Jinella dangling from a ledge. The snow was blinding. They were all woozey and dizzy for a moment. [and I think they all heard that ringing sound that always gives my wife a headache]. Ila helped Jinella back to her feet and they were all fine. But looking towards the outpost that had been just in sight, it was now gone. And actually, the mountainside seemed to have changed. The rocks were different. Gradually the snowfall let up and visibility cleared. Where were they?  Looking to the hill country below, none of it looked like where they’d just come from.  Not too far down, was a large lake. A small fishing village visible on shore.
“I don’t know where we are, but I know where we’re going” Aias pointed at the village. “We need to reorient ourselves and figure out what’s happened”.

Aias

Aias is a human. None of his ancestors were changed much by the cataclysm, so apart from being large and muscular he is “normal”. 

40 years old. LG Fighter/Cleric of Tyr. 6000 xp

18/86 – 16 – 16 – 18 – 18 – 15
EEKeeper – scores and starting experience

Ila

Ila is a human, but unlike her husband, her ancestors were mutated by the various environmental hazards in the post-apocalypse era.  Most noticeable is her vivid blue skin. She has a form of Infravision. She also has a mutated alteration of extraordinary dexterity.

35 years old. LG Paladin – Undead Hunter. 0 xp

17 – 20 – 18 – 14 – 17 – 18
EEKeeper – Create as a Human, change race to Half-Elf, then alter skin color. Scores.

Jinella

Jinella is a human, maybe. She has the unmistakable flat black skin color and white hair that would mark her as a Garn, that is a genetically engineered race from ancient times. But the trait is inconsistent in her family. And while most Garn are notably stern and dour, Jinella is jovial and known for telling epic stories that are always larger than life. It should be mentioned, in the Empire, Garn are an enslaved people. And Jinella is taking this War personally.
Jinella has two other mutation abilities that are not typical of the Garn. The first is the alarming fact that extreme heat and flames heal her. She also has a mutation called duality, which gives her perfect ambidexterity. It might be safe to say, Jinella has some significant Garn ancestry. But recent generations have been more mixed, she got a heavy dose of Garn appearance, but a number of non-Garn traits.

20 years old. LG Fighter. 2000 xp

18 – 13 – 10 – 11 – 11 – 14
EEKeeper – Skin and hair color. Normal and magical fire resistance set to 127%. 3 pips to two weapon style specialization. Starting experience and scores.

Charity

Charity is a Reiman, that is an extra-terrestrial race that settled on the planet in ancient times. Characteristic of her people she has metallic gold skin and flaming red hair. As typical of her people Charity is small, around 5’2”, slim and has an affinity for magic. Reiman can and do mate/partner with humans, (mostly) pure examples like Charity are becoming rare. Also note, Charity is actually older than the rest of the crew, Reiman are longer lived and reach maturity a little later. They typically (as noted above, many are mixed blood which causes odd variations on this) show no aging at all until around 200, at which point their colors start to fade and they may end up with mostly white skin and hair (but show no other signs humans would associate with aging) by the time they pass from old age at around 300 years.
Like all Reiman, Charity is 25% resistant to non-magical cold, fire and electricity.

45 years old. CG Mage. 2000 xp

15 – 15 – 13 – 18 – 12 – 18
EEKeeper – Skin and hair color. Cold, fire and electricity resistance set to 25%. Starting experience and scores.

Jill

Jill is a human. She has two mutations. First, rather obviously, she has purple hair. Second, Jill doesn’t even know, she has a quirk of Kinetic Absorption. Meaning she will take reduced damage from physical attacks.
Jill was born a slave of the Empire. She carries a burning hatred towards those who often took advantage of her in a range of unsettling ways. From her early teens she was employed as a courtesan. More recently, her last owner decided it would be fun to see her chopped up in an arena fight and sent her off for gladiator training. She had planned on finding an opportunity to kill the man, but such was not likely to ever happen. When she was freed from warrior training she swore a life debt to the team that got her out, on this current team that means Aias, Jinella and Charity. She knows Aias doesn’t believe she’ll be a good warrior and is determined to prove him wrong.

18 years old. NG Fighter. 0 xp

9 – 16 – 10 – 12 – 8 – 15
EEKeeper – Hair color. 25% resistant to piercing/slashing damage, 50% resistant to crushing damage. Scores (note – her score total is below the game minimum. In essence, Aias’ judgement of her is correct. But I’m betting she’ll prove useful anyway!)

Pikwell

Pikwell is a Samblon. That is, a member of a race genetically engineered in ancient times to be a “service animal”. A corrupt company had thought they could sell a lot of a lesser primate, a lemur, if it was altered for slightly improved strength and intelligence so they could be functional and useful in a range of menial service jobs. The genetic modifications were more successful than intended, many thousands were sold before many of the young Samblon started talking. This resulting in scandal and lawsuits…   and isn’t really pertinent here.
Most Samblon are pleasant and good natured, good citizens of wherever they may live. Few go into the military, adventuring or crime. They are a bit small, and they are notable for an agreeable temperament. [note – Samblon life span is a little shorter than human. They reach maturity a little after 10, and typically live to around 50].
Pikwell is uncommon for being a little bold, and a little daring. His first passion was to be a cleric, a Luckbringer of Tymora. But with this new war, he has chosen to serve his Queen by enlisting in the military as a scout and healer.

15 years old. CG Cleric/Thief. 0 xp.

8 – 17 – 15 – 11 – 16 – 14
EEKeeper – Created as a human, then changed to a Kobold avatar, recolored white and grey. Movement tweaked if too slow? Scores.
Also, we will assume he starts with leather armor designed for his anatomy. He will not be able to wear any armor from this setting and will have to improve via magical protection (essentially like a mage).

*****

As suggested previously, these are adaptions of the PnP characters. Many mutations of trivial impact are simply omitted. There are several detail differences in making this a good team, and some background story changes for the same reason.
The warring factions in the backstory, “The Empire” and “The Queen” are not what they were normally called in the original PnP game. Just an effort to keep things simple here and not launch into lengthy descriptions.

It is funny and incidental that these characters I chose to represent, are mostly normal looking except for skin or hair color. Part of that has to do with choosing characters I can see working well in this game.

Update 1

This is for the Easthaven part of the beginning, normally a short amount of gameplay. But it will be significant for our strangers in a strange land. Although perhaps, not as shocking as you might think…

*****

Aias warned everyone to be on their guard entering the little village, they still did not know exactly where they were. And being *at war* things could turn unpleasant very quickly.

But right on the main street, Pikwell saw something that just demanded immediate attention.

The kids looked at Pikwell and seemed stunned. Then they pointed and laughed.
“Well that was strange. Usually they sass back or call me names.”

Aias suggested they head into what seemed to be the only tavern in town. Some warmth would be nice, and that’s a good place to get information. “Just remember everyone, we’re travelers looking for business opportunities. Say we’re from Springfield unless we determine this area is loyal to the Queen.”

“Aias! Aias, I know where we are! Sort of.”
“Catch your breath Charity and enlighten me.”
“Have you been to the Capitol, Omega?”
“I have”
“I’ve read there’s a gate there. A permanent gate with another world.”
“Yes, its heavily guarded too because its a dangerous place. It goes to a city called Southdale which is loosing a generations long war. They will soon be overwhelmed and our Queen is preparing to take up to half a million refugees when the time comes. We do not want their enemies getting into our world.” Aias recalled.
“But the natives aren’t like us. Well there’s mostly humans, so they may be like you. But there are others, Elves, Halflings, Dwarves” Charity nodded towards the Dwarf across the room.
“You think we’re in Southdale? Wait, no, that’s all tropical” Aias was alarmed.
“No not Southdale. But someplace similar. Like an adjacent plane or however that all works.”

A man came to Aias and introduced himself as Hrothgar. He looked them over curiously, then said he was rounding up warriors and adventurers to answer a call for help from a town called Kuldahar, nearby to the south.

Update 2

Ila

We did a little exploring around town. Charity’s theory helps this make sense. Well, maybe not the how of it, but certainly the where of it. We dealt with an insufferably smug shop keeper who claimed to be from a place we’ve never heard of. We went into the inn and met an Elf! We also confirmed the expedition Hrothgar is putting together seems valid. Hrothgar is known as a protector of sorts for the area.

In the morning we continued, a child reported some goblins had stolen his fish. We found the ugly little humanoids and reclaimed the fish. Continuing on we encountered a fisherman who reported his dreams being haunted by a song and beautiful woman. Next a merchant reported his shop was invaded by a large wolf. We slew the wolf. Then stepping into a secluded cove we encountered a woman, a water spirit of some sort, singing a haunting song.

We were tasked with returning a broken sword, a family heirloom of sorts, to the fisherman. This seems to have brought some peace to both parties. Heading over to a Temple of Tempus we learned the story of Jerrod, and how he’d shut a gate to the Abyss right here. Next we found ourselves at Hrothgar’s home. He explained the coming mission a little more, sounds like there will be a fair number of us heading out for a nearby town in another day or two. In the meantime, he asked us to look for a caravan expected from the east.

We found it raided and ruined, near an inhabited cave. Entering, we found it inhabited by a number of, something. They looked much like the Goblins we faced earlier, but fully man sized.

We fought a number of them, over 20 in all including a couple of priests. They were led by a big guy, maybe something different?

We went back to town to tell Hrothgar what all we’d found. He supplied some names, it seems we fought orcs led by an ogre.

The next morning we were off for the town of Kuldahar.
In a high mountain pass, we saw movement of something large a long way up. In no time, the snows, the whole side of the mountain was thundering down towards us. I have no recollection of what everyone else was doing. But my husband yelling for us all to run, forward, double time! We escaped the avalanche, apparently the only ones who did. Maybe some others escaped back towards Easthaven? But we alone made it clear, on the road to Kuldahar. It was good to be alive, but I wonder how our little relief force of six aliens will be greeted in the town we’re going to help.

The immediate pass area where we found ourselves was overrun by a large number of goblins. At least we’re putting names to some of our challenges.
We killed over 30. In an old mill we found several human dead, a small number of orcs and more goblins.

I knocked along the walls and found a small hidden closet door. Inside was a small, sobbing little boy. We had met Jermsy, the millkeeper’s son. We would take him with us into Kuldahar. He said I was funny looking, but Jinella was scary. We’ll need to learn more about what the associations are everyone is making with us.

Update 3

Charity

We made it into Kuldahar. We were expected, but actually a much larger group was expected. There was some disappointment we were the only six survivors of the avalanche. I’m sure it didn’t help that we were six strangers, no Hrothgar or any other locals.

We made our way to Arundel, the local druid who had requested help. He explained there were a number of oddities, from unusually warm weather, to aggressive raids and attacks on the outlying areas, to disappearances of residents. Arundel thought the key was the nearby “Vale of Shadows”, an ancient burial ground. The dead had recently been restless. This was close to the village and demanded immediate attention.
Aias and I had broader questions about this world.

We learned Ila and Jinella could conceivably be mistaken for another race native to this world, that meant serious trouble to most people. A type of elf called Drow often had coloring that could look like either woman. Drow are much hated and feared. Although Arundel thought both women acted *very* unDrow-like, and such impressions would likely pass quickly. My own choice of robes were often associated with an evil group of Wizards as well. All told, we may find ourselves correcting a lot of mistaken impressions.

Sadly, Aias and I were actually more knowledgeable about planar and planar travel issues than he was. But Arundel was a rich source of information about his world. We were told that apart from undead, the Vale of Shadows was home to an increasingly aggressive tribe of Yeti. I had always thought Yeti were myths from the past, monsters when there were no monsters. But apparently here they are real, that’s exciting.
I think Aias and I made Arundel’s head spin, I’m peppering him with questions about the Yeti’s social groupings and what they eat; Aias is asking about their tactics and weapons. The undead sound like our own sorts, Aias and Ila are knowledgeable about them.

After some time exploring the little village of Kuldahar, and getting to know the brave souls who consider this inhospitable arctic cold their home, we set off for the Vale.

The first couple attacked us right on the edge of town, one townsman informed us his brother had been taken by the Yeti.

We found the tribe of Yeti had made home in a large cave that was not a tomb, but there were crates and other signs of recent human activity in evidence.
We also found some secured gates, we found keys in other tombs. This meant we had to scour all of them to proceed. There seems to be a few different things going on.

Update 4

Aias

Entering the tomb of the “Black Wolf” it was obviously more elaborate than any others we’d seen, and bigger than all the other tombs combined. It was also packed with lively undead! One specter, by the name of Mytos, spoke with us and demanded why we disturbed this domain. We explained the threat to the town Kuldahar, and that we were looking for an explanation. This led to a fairly metaphysical discussion about the nature of undeath, but ultimately we were forced to battle.

This temple was a maze of undead, traps and more undead. No doubt, Ila dominates this sort of fighting. I’m coming to feel pretty good about this whole team.

The priestess we recognized as the barmaid Lysan from Kuldahar. We tried to talk with her, but Auril’s agenda is about removing all warmth from the world. Even if we’d reached an agreement about leaving Kresselack’s surprisingly comfy abode alone, Kuldahar itself would remain an impasse. So Lysan had to be removed. No big surprise, she had a number of Yeti followers we had to contend with too.

Kresselack was appreciative but not extremely helpful. Merely assuring us he was not the threat to Kuldahar.
Fair enough. We seem to have restored peace to the Vale of Shadows, so we’ll take the win and look for deeper answers elsewhere.

We talked to Arundel when we got back to town. He was both pleased with our success and disappointed in the lack of further information. He suggested we track down an ancient scrying device at a remote temple he could point to on our maps. We set off to the “Temple of the Forgotten God” quickly. Just outside we met a fleeing giant (guard?) who said something about “bad priests” taking over. On entry we were accused by a priest of slaying his brothers, then immediately called to defend ourselves. We had to fight through a mixed force of priests and their giant guardians.

This was not such a hard battle, although a few us did get “Held”. Hah, yeah, well… we always were strong enough to win the fights with little drama. We arrived at their Holy Vault just too late, a raiding force just ahead of us had already seized the “Heartstone Gem”. We gathered what evidence we could of the attackers and returned to Kuldahar, hoping Arundel could make some sense of this.

There was a vial of poison we found, that Arundel identified as a snake venom. Which indicated a dungeon south of here known as Dragoneye. Lizards and snakes should be expected.

*****

A brief update from the gamer…

This may not be the strongest party I’ve run, but they are adequate. Everyone is around 5th level now.

The melee unit is husband and wife Aias and Ila, with the young warrior Jinella. They are pretty effective. Aias is the strongest, but as a multi-class fighter/cleric he will lag behind the others as a pure warrior. He remains the team leader, he is more experienced than his mere levels indicate and he is very smart.
His wife Ila is the weakest of the melee types, but as an Undead Hunter her specific skill set will be a huge help throughout this run. Its also worth mentioning, with her outstanding Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma I have her on point. She is the tankiest and most diplomatic of the team. Whether we’re facing hordes of skeletons, or a shopkeeper, she’s the first one to interact.
And Jinella is no slouch. As a single class fighter she already has mastery in her long swords, and that will improve. She has no bonuses from Dexterity or Constitution, so she’s sort of a glass cannon. But you know, cannons hit hard, she just needs protection.

The support team is also capable.
Charity might be considered the leader of the rear ranks. She is Intelligent and Charismatic, which defines the role. She’s a good enough mage, although having just hit 5th level she’s only just now at the point she can contribute more significantly in combat.
Pikwell is the cleric/thief. He is capable in both roles, but not overtly powerful in any sense. He can Find/Remove Traps, Open Locks, and heal people. The definition of a support character. When the rear ranks get over-run he is the first to melee. Not because he’s good at it, but because the others are better at range.
Jill is a good archer. With a 16 Dexterity she is not “great”, but she does have mastery in her short bow and that will get better. She also is specialized in Short Sword, she would be better in melee than Pikwell is, but I don’t want to give up on her missile fire. That will always be her primary job.

That’s the team and they’re pretty good. They struggled in a couple of the bigger fights in Kresselack’s Tomb, but blew threw the Forgotten Temple in record time (no rest stops). I will do a couple of the Lava side adventures before they head off to Dragoneye.

Update 5

Ila

During the night, we received word that some tragedy had befallen Upper Kuldahar. This was an area we hadn’t visited yet, the village north of the great tree, it was all residential and we’d no cause to head that way. But now we heard a murderous ice storm had frozen the area solid, likely many fatalities. The survivor we spoke described the storm as a living thing, seeking vengeance on the town. We set off immediately to see what we could do.

Indeed, there was a living storm in the center of town. It was the wrath of the ice goddess Auril. This was partly our fault. Okay, truly, its all Lysan’s fault. But it was on us to finish the job.

Our best attempts at melee proved pointless. The bitter cold of the storm was painful to approach, and slashing with sword or crushing with mace seemed fruitless. But we could keep it away from Charity who had other ideas. She started with a Flame Arrow spell that hurt it greatly. So this fight was all on her, the rest of us just kept it distracted. She was nearly down to her last spell when the storm just sort of fell apart.

That was close for us. But it was over for too many others. Casualties were massive for such a small town as Kuldahar, maybe 20 dead? Only one woman was found alive in town (apart from the handful who’d been able flee quickly).

After a day of rest we set off for Dragoneye. Charity wanted a look at a haunted pond we had found reference to back at Kresselack’s tomb, that was nearly on our way to Dragoneye. This was, just a frozen little pond. But it exuded such a strong feeling of sadness. Apart from a few Winter Wolves, there was an old shaman camped out along the shore who explained this had once been a Holy place of sorts. A place where dreams could come true, or at least people had beautiful and happy dreams here. A cave he indicated nearby had been a place where locals gave offerings to the spirit of the lake. But a few years back something changed, and things took a sorrowful turn. Many who came here threw themselves to their death in the frigid waters.
We explored the area and revisited the Shaman. We described things we’d found, but no explanation for the change. Maybe make an offering back in the old cave? Shrimp were the preferred sacrifice. We did this then explored into an ice cave in the pond itself.

Charity thought we could maybe fix this. It might be possible to remove some of the taint that had built here. She needed a sample of the Lady’s water, then we’d check with some of the magically attuned sorts in Kuldahar to come up with a way to cleanse it. Sounds flakey to me, but Charity thought it would help the Lady to move on to a more natural sort of grieving and healing.
Arundel had no ideas, he’s more attuned to nature than magic. Surprisingly the gnome craftsman Oswald had an idea. He gave us a lengthy note for the mage Orrick the Grey, and soon we had vial of water. Ghost Filtered or something? Strange.
But it seems to have helped the Lady. We could feel her sense of peace as the cleansed water was given to her. After this little detour we finally got off for Dragoneye.

Shortly after we caught first sight of our destination.

Actually quite a few lizardmen. Also spiders and beetles. But mostly, those lizardmen. Some of them were fairly tough, and they had priests of their evil god.

We found a large cavern that served as a throne room for a huge specimen of a lizardman. Charity said she was eager to try her new Fireball spell. Jinella grinned big, “target me! I’ve got point!”
I knew that girl liked heat, but she wasn’t kidding. It regenerates her somehow.

We freed a large group of slaves, we’ve armed a few of them to stand watch. But we’ll need to head deeper down and see if there’s more we can rescue before getting this group back to Kuldahar.

Update 6

Aias

We went downward through the caves to another large set of caverns. Her we fought giant beetles and trolls.

We found a number of slaves in these caverns too, including the high priestess from the Temple of Illmater in Kuldahar. We brought them up a level to the other slaves. We shared what food we had, and suggested they hold tight, we weren’t done and there might be more to rescue.

Continuing down we came face to face with a skeletal messenger of sorts.

We finally found a sorcerer who was behind all this. I believe Charity noted her name somewhere.
And what a shock, more tunnels heading down.
The next cavern had been ornately finished, like an expensive inn in an old castle or something. Quite elaborate. The residents approached like they were some concerned monks worried for our well being. I may have been laughing even before Ila mentioned they were as evil as anything she’d ever sensed. We fought a large number of snake men. I don’t know what they are, they are maybe bigger and tougher than trolls (and they had a few of those!) but they don’t regenerate.

We freed some more prisoners, an adventuring party. They knew these creatures as Yuan-Ti. We asked them to head up a couple of levels to guard the captives we’d freed. We cleared this level quickly. Then set up to guard a door to more tunnels heading down. We needed to get some rest.

Update 7

Charity

The next level down was full of those snake-guys. They are aggressive! And have a large number of spell casters. Made for a brutal slog. And we were being taunted by some creepy little girl. The evil practically radiated from her, I didn’t even need Ila’s confirmation.

Finally we came to a throne room sort of chamber. The “little girl” was holding court with a number of the snake-guys. She had a little surprise for us.

That was exciting. The “Yuan-Ti” are not all that fearsome. But this alien demon monster thingy was! She had a number of magic defenses up. I recognized Stone Skin, I just learned that one myself. Also I think Fire Shield? I’ve seen it mentioned but its not in my book. Pikwell could lower her magic resistance, and I cast Breach. I just learned that one too! She went down pretty quickly once the Stone Skin was down, I’ll take that as a warning to myself. I know all of our warriors were battered around pretty good by then.

Now it was time to lead our great caravan back to Kuldahar. A number of freed villagers meant many happy and tearful reunions. Sadly we saws the faces of a few families whose loved ones were not returning. It sickens me how our enemies cheapen life.

We also found a number of Orog raiders come into Kuldahar. These big brutes are not much of a threat to us, just like bigger orcs. But we couldn’t figure where they came from? We haven’t seen any of them in our travels yet.

On the way we stopped at a small Halfling village. This was mostly a lower key rest stop for us. Halflings are usually pleasant and helpful. We still found a few minor chores to help out with.

The worst of it was the village headwoman was being visited by nightmares. These had a very real origin in a snowy valley nearby. Some sort of elemental evil was feeding off people’s doubts and fears. Interesting, it warned us something much more powerful was now in the greater area.
On that note, we hurried off to the Elven fortress.

Update 8

Ila

We got down to The Severed Hand the next day. It is an imposing sight!

Its a little daunting to think of something so big, being abandoned for so long. It is rumored that the final combat here between Elves and Orcs is replayed endlessly by the non-survivors.

Honestly, Charity was the only one of us knowledgeable about such things. But she made it happen.
Now we knew we were heading to a place called “Dorn’s Deep” as the source of evil in the region. Larrel offered to teleport us there, but we asked to return to Kuldahar to resupply. He obliged.

Update 9

Aias

We got to Dorn’s Deep with no trouble. The entrance to the ancient Dwarven City was guarded by a group of the big Orcs known as Orogs. They were not much of a barrier to us. Going in through the cave entrance was not what I expected. It mostly seemed to be a great natural cavern, with a few monumental Dwarven ruins scattered. The cave inhabitants were unique.

We did find a few caves of Orcs and Orogs. This must be where they’ve been raiding Kuldahar from! A mage doing some eccentric research proved not friendly, but talkative. He gave directions to a bridge over a chasm not too far from here that marked the real entrance to the old Dwarven city. We heard voices through the entryway and got ready for a big fight.

A lot of fighting throughout this upper level. Finally, we found a puzzle lock for a door going down below. Charity and I were able to solve it, just a matter of matching patterns from one room to the next.
Down below was a great forge, long gone cold. A spectral guardian tested to be sure we were not despoilers. He informed us a great Dwarven burial vault lay beyond, but it had been corrupted by a Lich. I’ve fought them before, when I was more capable than I am now. I think this team is just on the cusp of being up to it. I briefed them all on what to expect, Charity can only expect success with her *most* powerful spells. Jill and Pikwell are not equipped for this foe, but they can support against the lesser undead that sure to be present. Ila, Jinella and I are all using weapons that should tear it up, but we may have to outlast some defensive spells first.

Clearing the Lich and other undead brought the forge back to life, apparently the Dwarven dead can rest peace here again.

Update 10

Ila

There was some distance of tunnel from the tomb area back up to the surface, along the way the walls went from rock to ice. When we got to the surface it was a vast glacier. First thing we saw was number of trolls coming at us!

After clearing 20 or so of these beasts we took stock of where we were. An elaborate structure stood in the middle of the glacier. A chasm to one side had a bridge across, to a cave entrance. But the bridge was damaged. So we looked to enter the large building. It was presumably Dwarven architecture. We could see movement inside the upper level, but a basement entrance seemed quiet so we entered there. And found a number of escaped slaves hiding in a toasty warm library. They explained they’d recently escaped from upstairs, but had nowhere to go and were only temporarily safe because the “Ice Salamanders” and “Snow Trolls” upstairs would come down into this warmth.

Of course we offered to get them out. And we’ll clear the upper level free of charge.

We slew a number of Salamanders and Trolls, but only one living slave was still up here. We got all the slaves together and learned there were still more with the leader on the other side of chasm. We got the feeling we needed a way across that chasm!

What a shock, inside that cave we found more Trolls.

We finally got to some bigger caverns, where there more slaves in need of saving. They were being kept by giant, blue skinned, well I guess they were giants! We learned they were the ones who’d started the avalanche that killed most of the companions we first set out for Kuldahar with.

We led another large number of freed slaves back to Kuldahar after this. We were planning on heading back right away, maybe finally get to the bottom of things. But we were needed to put down a Chimera right near town. And then a Barbarian Shaman came to us, he was insistent he had seen it as our destiny to help him with some drama over by the (not too) distant town of Lonelywood.

Update 11

Ila

The shaman used some sort of shadow-walk magic to transport us to the remote town of Lonelywood. As I understand, this is one of the “Ten Towns” in Icewind Dale. But it is the smallest and most remote of those small and remote towns. I was expecting we’d be nearer the Barbarian camp? Our mission is to see if we can keep peace among these groups that often don’t like each other much.

First thing I see, is a little girl standing alone near the town well. No one is paying her any attention!

We needed rope and got to her family home, only to be told Haley doesn’t have a brother. Apparently causing strangers a bit of panic passes for entertainment in these parts.
Thus begins our mission to Lonelywood. Checking around town, there was a lot of concern about the nearby Barbarian encampment. The highlight, apart from some Dunn family drama and barbarian worries, would seem to be some recent wolf attacks. Not quite a hot spot. The village headman did provide good directions to the camp, so off we went.

The shaman, Hjollder, who brought us here was banished when it came out he had brought us here. It looked like our mission was over before it began. As we left the camp, we were surrounded by warriors who in formed us they had orders to kill us. Hoping to avoid hurting them I challenged their honor on attacking guests who came only to parlay. They agreed to let us pass, and further offered that Hjollder would be sent to a place called Burial Island.
Cheery. We’ll need to find him to see where to go from here. Burial Island is back closer to Lonelywood.

We found Hjollder eventually and told him what had happened, and what we’d found. He was intrigued by the vandalized tomb, this was Wylfdene’s tomb. But he would not have vandalized his own tomb?
He sent us to a greater seer, known as the Gloomfrost Seer. She could only be found far to the frozen north. More frozen than here?
We took our boat back to Lonelywood, planning on heading north the next day.

We talked with villagers and came to the conclusion Emmerich, the local Ranger had contracted lycanthropy. We already knew the innkeeper was a former adventuring mage, so consulting with him we found a suppressant, not a cure, we could give to Emmerich.

Update 12

Charity

It seems like these last few days I’ve had not so much to. We faced a range of combat, but mostly melee of the sort that limited my own involvement. First the long trek up to the Gloomfrost Range. If anything could be more frozen and desolate than Icewind Dale, this is it. So bitter cold.

Also Frost Giants, Snow Trolls, Polar Bear. It was constant combat just to get to the caves we were looking for.

As we approached the Seer’s part of the caves we encountered more Ice Golems. Finally, we met the aged shamaness who advised we present Wylfdene with a mirror. That was a little anti-climatic! But she was sure a mirror would upset whatever he had become. A long trek back.

He’d been possessed by the spirit of a Dragon! Apparently the Dragon could not stand the sight of the form she had assumed. This led to a civil war in the barbarian camp. One tribe, the Tribe of the Wyrm, knew exactly what Wylfdene was and attacked us for our sacrilege. The other tribes joined with us against them. This was a large and confusing melee that lasted for quite some time.

We talked with Hjollder after, he was pretty sure he knew where the Dragon had flown off to, an Isle that years ago had been home to a White Wyrm that terrorized all of Icewind Vale. We needed to see to some business in Lonelywood, so Hjollder said he’d wait a couple days for us. The Barbarians would need several days to get to their boats and sail there, he could spirit walk us there ahead of the others if we got back soon enough.
In Lonelywood we went right to Councilman Thurlow’s home to let him know what all we’d found. We found the Councilman and his wife had been murdered.

We caught the villain, but he fought to the death. So we remain a little clueless about who ordered this done.
The next day, when leaving the inn we met strangers in town.

Ila does have a temper! And she seems to consider everyone she meets as “under her protection”. Is that a mom thing? I don’t know, but it led to a big fight. The wizard speaking had several invisible friends, really. Another mage, a dark cleric, thief and a couple warriors. This was a tough fight, and I cast a lot of spells! I think more than I had all week up until this event. These were easily the two toughest mages I’ve ever fought. By the end Ila, Aias and Jinella were all stunned or confused. But Jill, Pikwell and I brought down the two mages at last. Then we did some dispelling and everyone was okay.
But we would need another day before we went off to meet with Hjollder. The next morning we were getting ready to head off, I saw Jill talking with a halfling at a table by himself.

I heard her say those words and there was a flash, not quite as the one that brought us to this world.

Update 13

Ila

We’d been transported again, this time out to a blazing hot desert. The Halfling, Hobart, briefly taunted we’d got what we asked for before ducking into a small stone building. We then had a fight against a few beasties I’d not seen before. Charity later identified them as Wyverns and Harpies, that were fighting each other until they all turned on us. It was not a long or hard fight, except the Harpies can apparently stun with their voice, Aias was briefly disoriented. Obviously this could be a problem with a larger group of them.
But then we were back to the alarming shock of going from the bitter frozen north to being in some sort of sun-blasted dessert.

Jill is distraught. She is terrified Aias’ doubts about her are completely right. I reminded her Aias had already told her he was wrong. And she’s saved us all more than once, she is deadly with her bow.
Aias asked me to be team Sergeant, but what this crew really needs is a Team Mom. I encouraged Jill as best I could, she is back on her feet and functional. I’ll remind Aias to encourage her some more!

Some great tragedy had occurred here, we needed to sort it out to escape. Charity seems to be in her element with this sort of thing.
We cleared the courtyard, the walls, and the guard towers. We found the Wyvern nest and a pack of harpies in different towers. Plus a hostile group of adventurers held up in another, they blew their chance at getting out of here…

This all led us to a large crypt under a Chapel dedicated to Helm. This was a brutal maze of traps and undead.

It did take a while, but in the end we had learned the first part of the tragedy. The Lord of this castle had abandoned his troops when a Dragon attacked. His best knights died defeating it.
Now we were allowed entry into the main castle. A number of spectral soldiers attacked us. This haunted old castle is a dangerous place! Finally we faced Lord Fallon Malurdek. After betraying his knights he had become a wrathful and twisted specter.

We have learned, that the bard we met earlier was condemned to the dungeons for trying to write about Lord Malrudek’s betrayal. So that’s where we head next.

*****

This team has grown pretty effective. Ila leads the way with 30% of party experience. Being an Undead Hunter is a big boon in this game! Jinella hits very hard, but she often needs to beak off for healing. I mentioned that a while back and it remains true, she is a glass cannon.
Role playing wise I feel like everyone has a distinct part to play. Aias is the strategic leader. He is an effective balance of hitting power and staying power, but doesn’t stand out either way.
Ila is the tactical leader and Team Mom. She can clearly take the most, very tanky. Lot’s of hit points, excellent armor class and good saving throws. It surprises me a little how much she dishes out, but again, Undead Hunter in IWD. She also has Gauntlets of Ogre Power now, so look out!
Jinella is jovial and a little cocky. Grand Mastery in Long Sword and dual wielding them. She also has Guantlets of Ogre Power now. She is the best damage dealer against a range of opponents. But lousy armor class and average hit points. Pikwell often functions as her personal healer, that works pretty well for a while (he only carries a single Heal spell at this point).
Charity is the puzzle solver. I also like her as an observer (frequent narrator of these updates), she is smart enough to offer insight and being in the rear rank she literally sees more of the action. As a single class mage she is also a very good caster. And I think, pretty gentle and good natured which makes her a perfect partner/coach for Jill.
Pikwell fills a key dual role. Obviously a thief is much appreciated. He is very good at it now, finding and removing traps is a busy job all by itself. And he’s an excellent healer. Obviously Aias is technically just as good, except he’s always in the front rank. Pikwell can heal and fix things during the action.
Jill is a very good archer. She’s also up to High Mastery now in Short Sword, so she’s no slouch at melee either. Role playing wise I think she struggles to understand a lot of what’s going on, except that she shoots at anyone attacking her friends. She’s also all on board with the idea of helping out those in need. But she lacks discernment about identifying legitimate needs. She needs others to lead.

I’d also mention how much fun this crew is with the AI Art. I’ve learned (mostly) how to get consistent result for team. It often involves putting the various weirdisms in the initial description. So Jinella is “Charcoal skinned warrior woman (rest of description)”. Often the weird part gets repeated in the “(rest of description)”. This usually gives me what I want, at least some of the renders will. Pointed ears remain an odd fetish of the AI, once they’re present they tend to show up everywhere.
I’ll also admit the obvious, Charity is a strong favorite of mine to render. The metallic skin effect is awesome! I pushed for a little cheesecake in this set just to show more skin under the blazing sun. We’ll just assume she had a “classic Greek style tunic” in her travel kit.
I’ve been trying to include at least one render of everyone for each set. With this odd team its a requirement!

Update 14

Aias

We headed down into the dungeons. The first level was filled with a variety beasts, some we’d seen here like Orogs. Others were more the stuff of myth, like minotaurs. They’d been caged, but were all released as we arrived.

Really, the first two levels were like this. Although we had a small puzzle to solve to eget below that.

The next level was just ooze and slim that had to be burned away.

But the bottom level was the escape, and was a fearsome test. It was mostly home to a tribe of something we learned were called Jackalweres. They weren’t the most fearsome combatants themselves, but they had nasty tricks, mainly involving magic use. This included Demon summoning and a number of dangerous allies.

This bottom level was a big puzzle to activate the exit gate. the last battle involved several summoners calling demons, it was a drawn out epic for us.

When we stepped through the gate, we found ourselves in the Castle’s throne room on the main floor. There’d been no way in we could find when we were actually on the main floor. Here we faced the specter of the Luremaster himself. He congratulated us for working our way through his puzzle, our last test involved putting him and the last defenders of the keep to rest.

Four days had elapsed since that Halfling trapped us in that dessert Castle. After a brief rest we hustled back to Hjollder so we could join the battle against an ancient Dragon.

*****

I’ve mentioned before I’m using SCS for the first time on this run. I’ve kept it on a low setting, so I’m pretty much playing at standard Core difficulty and just observing how it handles things. So far, I’ve mostly seen that spellcasters are more active and do more different things. This part of the game has involved some of the first real difficulty increases I’ve seen. Although not in expected places. Like the Harpy cave is often a hard fight (depending on the party), but apart from observing many of the harpies had more different defenses up, it didn’t prove very difficult. But the last fight in the dungeon, against a mass of Jackalweres, spellcasters, and several demons. Wow. That fight is normally no big deal to me, but it was tough here! Especially with so many summons to face. I failed twice, the summoned demons and such were ultimately overpowering. I finally won the fight when I sent Aias and Ila, hasted, racing to the back of the cave and tearing up the summoners quickly. But I had to sweat out the whole fight, a lot of isolated little battles developed, like the one where Pikwell got cut off. It was fun, and maybe the first time I’ve been particularly enthused by what SCS brought to the game.

There are a few battles ahead with high level casters, I’ll look forward to seeing if they can be as challenging.

Update 15

I want to start this update with the thought, the two women warriors in this party look enough alike I fear its causing some confusion. So just a brief attempt to clarify, Ila and Jinella both have coloring that may make them easily mistaken for Drow. Both women wear metal armor, and both usually dual wield long swords. Sorry for that, it wasn’t among the things I was really looking at when I chose this team.

Ila is the team Mom. Literally, she is 35 years old and has three kids. That is also her personality, she is warm and encouraging. To identify her, she has bright blue skin and black hair. She wears “dark plate armor”.
Jinella is a youngster at 20 years old. She has a boisterous laugh that is often heard and is jovial by nature. She has “charcoal” black skin and white braided hair. She wears “silver Roman armor”.
Jinella’s armor is sort of a bust. I meant it to be Roman Lorica Segmentata, but apart from her initial portrait it has not rendered well. Often, not even silver. Although, as we see in the portrait here it is a little brighter than what Ila is wearing. That part of the descriptions has not been helpful. But skin and hair colors are something I always check the renders for. So that should be a solid way to tell them apart.

*****

Ila

Hjollder transported us right to the barbarian camp on the Dragon’s island.

We had to clear a number of trolls and scrags from the island to get to a set of doors.

We entered a large cavern complex and were attacked by a mass of trolls, yeti and some sort of icy wyvern.

There was a frozen corpse of a giant white dragon in the middle of one huge cave. Finally we came to a small chapel made of bones. A Sahuagin priestess was here. She was chatty, perhaps because as a “keeper of the dead” she was outcast by her tribe. We told her we sought the great white wyrm. She asked us to turn back, we would have to battle her tribe to get to the dragon.
Regretfully, we were unable to comply.

After clearing maybe 30 of the ill-tempered fish-men from the cave we were ready to face the beast.
We tried to reason with her, Dragons are not stupid. But this dragon had a genocidal hatred for all things human or demi-human.

After slaying the beast and a handful of bodyguard Sahuagin, we found ourselves transported back to Kuldahar. An exhausting couple of weeks! Tomorrow we’ll head to to the glacier and see if we can finish what we started there.

*****

Two down, one to go! That all went pretty easily. Apart from mentioning the outer chamber of Sahuagin all fell on us more quickly than they do without SCS it wasn’t significantly harder. I might even say SCS has been a little easier on the island, the way everyone hits you at once its easier to buff beforehand and wage the tough fighting while all buffs are still going. The only complication remains that Jinella often needs healing, even more so during an extended melee.

My guess is, I’ll finish the rest of the game in the next couple days. Maybe two more updates and an epilogue.

Update 16

Ila

We were able to get right back to where we were, entering Lower Dorn’s Deep. It was a massive forge area of the old Dwarven city, but it had been turned to darker purposes and was being run by Gnome slaves. That had been savagely abused.
We cleared the main area of those flaming serpent demon things [Ila is not familiar with Salamanders], and an alarming number of animated suits of armor. Really just the armor! They do not seem to be undead spirits or such.

Across the main floor was a watch tower, as we were surveying it a Gnome girl with a box of food approached.

I felt my face go purple. She had a key on a chain around her neck. “Fengla is that key for this tower?” She nodded. “why don’t you let me have it? We have some business with these guards. And start handing out food to everyone who’s hungry, the men in there won’t be needing it”
I was in no mood to talk to these tower guards, we went floor to floor clearing it out.
Next we went to the palace, this seems to be the center of this operation. After battling our way in, we found an opulent bedroom to one side.

A Drow Elf woman was in here. A captive, a courtesan. She’d been beaten. Unlike the last Drow we met I detected no evil on her.

I asked who’d beaten her, she says it was Marketh. We’d already encountered that name, he fancied himself Lord of this place. She must have seen it register on my face and begged us not to kill him. She claimed it was all her fault for speaking Drow to him. I was disappointed at the thought of not killing him.
And Ginafae was still captive here. Some sort of spell had her confined to this room, leaving it would kill her. Her brother, a powerful mage who had a lab elsewhere in Dorn’s Deep had trapped her here. I told we would look for a way to release her.

Heading upstairs we fought many more guards and mages. Marketh himself was the sort of coward you’d expect. He dropped his gear and promised to leave and not return in exchange for his life. We told him what he owed the Drow woman he’d been beating, she saved his life.
After this, we went to the palace kitchen and cleared it out to feed the slaves. After running a food service for a couple hours, we set off for the mage’s lab. He was a true psycho, long story.

Charity went right to work on bringing his defenses down. He may have been the most powerful mage we’d faced? But he had little support, a few Invisible Stalkers, and we put him down pretty fast.
His lab area had a lot of magic items and spell research that Charity was eager to get a look at.

We also found a counter for the binding spell on Ginafae, and used it to release her. We offered she would be welcome with us, but she said she had a place she could go.

From here we continued into the mines killing more of those serpent guards and freeing the slaves. Even deeper down was a an elemental research area, or something? We had to fight a number of elementals of different types. And I think another type of Giant? They were bigger than the Frost Giants we’d fought earlier, and seemed to like staying close to a river of lava at the far side of this room.

The last area to investigate was an old temple. It had been completely corrupted and was over-run with undead.

We’ve learned a supposed priest of Illmater, the long suffering God, known as Poquelin, is directing everything happening here. And with the cleansing of this temple we have access to him, apparently just down a set of stairs at the back of the temple.

Well, we all know where we’re going.

Update 17

Ila

We stepped off the stairs into a cavern, it looked like a natural setting but something was not quite right. Brother Poquelin was there, surrounded by a number of animals. Charity whispered that this was thick with illusion. We challenged what kind of man could be responsible for the evils we’d seen. There was nothing kindly in Poquelin’s manner or actions.

This quickly turned to violence, and indeed, all the little critters turned into dangerous beasts… Minotaurs, undead even. Poquelin fled quickly enough, we found ourselves dragged through a gate or something right after him.
And we were back in Easthaven. But it had been transformed and not for the better. Much of the town had been destroyed.

A nice thing about a Cyclopes attack, they don’t hide very well. We hunted them all down pretty quickly.
All the townsfolk were in a corral on the south edge of town. They were safe now, but their town was in ruins. We found the cleric of Tempos, Everard was the de facto town leader with Hrothgar gone. He told us Brother Poquilin was in the temple, trying to get to the relic Jerrod’s Stone.
Obviously this couldn’t be good. So we were off at once. The stone itself seemed secure, the only way to go seemed to be stairs heading up.

Ruler of a ruined town where no one will follow you? No surprise, this led to combat. An interesting battle, Pomab created multiple illusions of himself. And he was casting Lightning bolts every which direction. It was like a very high level variant of Mirror Image, because these images could take a few hits. But after several long minutes we started to make real headway, and soon the delusional shopkeeper was no more.
From here we found a teleporter, down to the vault where Jerrod’s Stone was kept. Poquelin was here. And then he changed.

This was an epic fight. The floor of the room was trapped too, so every step could lead to a spike or a spell going off on us. We concentrated on the lesser opponents and got them down quickly. But Poquelin, or Belhifet as we learned he was actually called, was a tough foe. With his flunkies gone we were able to pile more hurt directly on him. And soon enough the demon was no more.

Epilogue

Ila

The town was still ruined. We set to helping the locals rebuild as soon as everyone had been cared for. Construction is not quite our forte! But we could help. And we sent out notice to the other nearby towns that workers and supplies were needed. And we would pay! That did bring in a few helpers. And we each did what we were best for.

We also came up with a plan. After a couple months we had most of the town back in order. We all wanted to go home. Charity had acquired some understanding of how planar magic worked, but she needed to know *where* we were going. We traveled to Kuldahar to chat with Orrick the Grey. He wasn’t much help, his work was too theoretical to do us much good.
Aias had an idea who could help, the ancient (we will refrain from saying “undead”) elven mage Larrel. He had been appreciative of our help, and had knowledge of many ages. Charity thought we should check the library at Malevon’s lab on the way. This thought pleased me, I wanted to check back in there. We’d left a number of abused and neglected slaves behind in our chase after Poquelin. It would be good to see if any still needed our help.

Lower Dorn’s Deep was strangely quiet when we got there. The Gnome former slaves were all gone. But I saw one familiar figure sitting on the stone steps at the entrance.

I asked about the Gnomes, she said they were Deep Gnomes and had all returned to the depths that made them happy. “Why are you still here?”
“I have no where to go. I have no clan now, my brother is dead. I’m not a powerful priestess or warrior who can earn a place by force. And the Drow don’t do charity.”
“Ginafae we look after our friends. You are welcome with us. We can protect you, and we’ll figure out a job for you.”
I explained though, that we weren’t from here and we were trying to get home. The world we were going to didn’t have Drow. But the good news was, no one would hold her appearance against her. Shoot, we could say she was Jinella’s sister!”

So the seven of us continued on to The Severed Hand. Larrel was happy to help us. It did still require some research that was well beyond my feeble mind, but Charity and Larrel together figured out how to gate us home with only a week of work.

Home never looked so good!

We’d been gone nearly six months, and the War had nearly resolved itself. The largest order of Knights in the Empire had broken into squabbling over their involvement. The largest faction refused to serve their mad Emperor and allied with the Queen instead. That led to a series of events that completely undid the Emperor’s War effort.

Aias and I wanted to keep this team together as best we could and we offered jobs to everyone. Pikwell immediately accepted and he ran a chapel to Tymora right in the shadow of the Temple to Tyr.
Jinella by this point was easily a better warrior than any others in our employ, so she went to work with our own guard forces. In time she commanded it; she married, had kids and has been with us ever since.
Jill, well, Aias made her an archer Sergeant at our castle. She could never rise to high command, the girl didn’t have it in her. But she was a great archer and could help with training. She married a member of the household staff, and basically lived with us.
Charity stayed in the Queen’s service and was often sent out on foreign service work. She visits often and remains a dear friend.
Ginafae also stayed with us. Her story was a little harder. Growing up a Drow with a history of abusive relationships it was hard for her to know peace in life. And she wasn’t joking about having no professional skills. She’d always been used as a bargaining chip and a courtesan. We did not need such skills! But she did prove capable of running a household. Except for many years she needed correction about how she treated other staff. Eventually she got the hang of it, she never had a bad heart she was just used to violence as a part of life. Her choices in partners and romantic entanglements remained poor for over a decade. Being a longer lived race than any of us, she will be faced with some hard life choices in time. But now, many years later, she is settling into her life here. I believe she will continue in her role for our kids, and grandkids one day. And I believe her next relationship will be healthier than her last few.

Aias and I are good. He had regained all the skills lost before we went to Icewind Dale. But he felt the years and swore no more great adventures for him. I’m happy to stay home with him and the kids. Oh and we had another after getting home! There’s always work and chores to be done with four kids, a Barony and a Temple to run; but we’re happy here and now.

*****

This was a fun run, and the AI art was consistently challenging and exciting.

I didn’t find SCS made a huge difference on gameplay, although admittedly I kept it on a low setting. Only two fights, the Luskan mage’s attack in Lonelywood and the Jackalweres with summoners (the second to last fight) in Trial of the Luremaster, struck me as difficult. A number of others were a *little* harder. Next play I’ll try it another step up.

I will miss this group. A fun assortment of characters from my own PnP game. I very much enjoyed bringing them to life this way.